Statement from Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook on Nov. 13 airstrike in Libya
Dec. 7, 2015

The Department of Defense has confirmed that Abu Nabil, aka Wissam Najm Abd Zayd al Zubaydi, an Iraqi national who was a longtime al Qaeda operative and the senior ISIL leader in Libya, is dead as a result of a U.S. military airstrike in Libya undertaken on Nov. 13.

While not the first U.S. strike against terrorists in Libya, this was the first U.S. strike against an ISIL leader in Libya and it demonstrates we will go after ISIL leaders wherever they operate.